Magazine 2003 Safeway Ping

Volume 1, Number 2 March 26, 2003

Safeway Ping 2003: Hometown Girl

Pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Results

Grace has her best showing yet in her American hometown tournament

Grace Park has lived in Phoenix since she was a teenager. When she first came to the United States, she lived in Hawaii. Which was a nice transition from Korea, as there is a large Asian population there. But it was difficult, as a rising young golf star, to constantly travel to the mainland for the big events. As a result, her parents decided to move her to the mainland, and chose Phoenix, a place where she could play golf all year round. It was hard at first, as she did not know much English, and there were few Asians, let alone Koreans, to hang around with.

Apparenty she got used to it, for she ended up going to college in town, at Arizona State University. And after college, she continued to live in the area, and still does to this day.

But despite, or perhaps because, she has so many friends in Phoenix, she has never done that well at the Ping tournament, the LPGA stop in town. In fact, last year's 18th place finish had been her best at the event heretofore. She claims that there are too many distractions. When you are on the road, you basically go out to dinner, then back to your hotel. But Grace has any number of friends to hang out with in Phoenix, and doubtless has dozens of favorite restaurants and shops she can go to. As well, it must weird to look out into the gallery and see lots of familiar faces there cheering you on.

AP Photo/Paul Connors

So Grace tried something a bit different this year. She decided to treat this stop like any other stop. Well, not exactly. She still stayed at home instead of a hotel. But no hanging out with her pals, no focusing on the people she knows in the gallery, no going out to her favorite shops. Perhaps this would get her into the right frame of mind to win.

Of course, one could also argue that Grace is just flat out playing better than she ever has before. But regardless of whether it was her strategy for this tournament, or her greater skill, Grace had a whale of an event in Phoenix at the Safeway Ping. She contended all week, and a burst of brilliant play on Sunday not only nearly grabbed the title for her (she would finish second), but also announced to the world that the Big Three in women's golf might soon become the Big Four.

To say that Grace was consistent in the first three rounds is an understatement. She managed identical 67s on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, situating her in a tie for third going into the final day, only three shots out of the lead. She wasn't hitting a ton of greens, but her numbers were not bad in that department. Nonetheless, the most noticeable thing about her play was her short game. Simply put, her putting was masterful. Her stroke has become more refined and smooth, more like Mi Hyun Kim's than before. Her speed was almost perfect, and she got the line right more often than she got it wrong. As a result, she had only 25 putts on Thursday, 26 on Friday and 26 on Saturday. For those keeping count, that means she had more one putts than two putts all three days.

As well, Grace has a new caddie this year, an Englishman named David Brooker. He has helped her with her putt reads, and in general earned his pay and then some this year. A good caddie you click with is another important piece of the puzzle; think how much Colin Cann has helped Se Ri in the last couple of years. Dave seems a good match for Grace.